Can Virtual Reality Help With Anxiety?

VR offers something in each area bar medication. Theoretically as we continue to make advances in tracking chemical and circuitry in the brain, you could be prescribed a specific experience to trigger a rebalancing of your brain chemistry, but it remains early for this.

Here, I'll be focusing on the key highlights and practical things you can explore today, starting by exploring how VR could help anxiety.

"Anxiety is part of the new connectivity" - Sherry Turkle

Almost 20% of people are now believed to suffer from an anxiety disorder in the US (ADAA).

In the UK, around 40 per cent of new claimants for disability benefits are suffering from mental illnesses, of which anxiety and depression are the most common. (New Statesman)

This is clearly a growing issue and, right now, technology seems to be making things worse.

We are overwhelmed by a paradox of choice when attempting to make even the simplest decision, constantly comparing ourselves to glamorized representations of others on social media and attempting to achieve a Herculean number of tasks in parallel.

Most concerning, despite more people reporting symptoms and the high treatability of many anxiety disorders, less than a third of people actually seek help (ADAA).

We have on-demand transport, food and even dogs at our fingertips but continue to suffer in silence, anxiously glued to our devices.

So how could VR help?

Anxiety can broadly be tackled in three main ways, often employed in tandem.

VR offers something in each area bar medication. Theoretically as we continue to make advances in tracking chemical and circuitry in the brain, you could be prescribed a specific experience to trigger a rebalancing of your brain chemistry, but it remains early for this.

Self treatment

There are already a plethora of meditation and relaxation apps like Headspace available online and on mobile.

Problem is, these apps don't automatically provide you a calming environment to practice in and risk providing more distraction equalling more anxiety.

VR can totally occlude a user from the physical environment and its distractions.

Guided Meditation VR created by Josh Farkas' Cubicle Ninjas is the most talked about, providing a range of environments that can be matched to your mood along with audio guidance.

I've tried it and it's impressive. The smartest feature is that the app lets you track your heart rate before and after the experience.

Other notable early movers include ShapeSpace VR and Deepak Chopra who are combining abstract art, interactive features and storytelling to offer a similar experience.

Professional therapy

Virtual based therapies are not new to professional treatments for psychological disorders.

Exposure based therapies, where patients are exposed to their fear or anxiety in a controlled environment, are particularly transferable to VR.

Patients can be put into highly realistic virtual environments, which can be entirely controlled and tweaked by therapists at, comparatively low cost.

Dr "Skip" Rizzo, Director of Medical Virtual Reality at USC, has applied this to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD) by developing an application called Bravemind for use with military personnel.

Similarly, pain relief has received a lot of focus with AppliedVR and DeepStreamVR developing applications aiming to reduce pain for patients.

Research has shown that virtual therapy can be so effective that it reduces pain by 50% to 90% in clinical trials (Infinite Reality).

Could VR make us more anxious?

VR experiences aren't always full of calming meditative visualisations and abstract worlds designed to give you a metaphorical cuddle.

Breaking Forth, recently ran a well-received, sold-out showing of their new groundbreaking film "CTRL". It's one of the first extended narrative VR pieces open to the public but covers some sensitive topics, unexpectedly, which could have a very lasting impact given the enhanced immersion.